The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Despite the billing I can't imagine that the format of these two concerts will vary too much from when Joss Stone last performed with Bacharach in 2016, when she was introduced mid-way through what up to that point had been one of his standard shows, sang 9 or 10 of his songs with a lot of banter in...

In common with Bacharach he was simply in a different class as a composer, arranger and musician and I'm really going to miss seeing him on his frequent trips to London.

We have her two albums from the early 60s on which she collaborated with a couple of jazz greats, firstly pianist George Shearing and then alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. From the album she made with Adderley and his band here's 'Happy Talk', in the days when albums of this nature could get in...

I first became aware of the song 'À Bicyclette' as recorded by Yves Montand on a family holiday in France in the early 70s but it was only fairly recently that I discovered it was composed by Lai.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzbrjxqwpoo

Yes, even when it may be as much as forty or fifty years since they wrote their best-loved music it still feels like a terrible loss when great composers go. I love to hear all the sumptuous chords to perhaps Francis Lai's most famous tune played on the piano. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=izotHO8p8h4

Putting to one side questions of taste and decency, I don't think the original last line, "Or we're all fucked", was ever going to be very singable and I'm glad the record company got Bacharach to change it to, "Before it's too late". As Elvis Costello was involved in the recordi...

If Bacharach's only contribution to 'He's Given Me Things' is but a single chord change then I doubt if it was much more for this collaboration from more than a decade ago. My feeling is that even a team of highly skilled musicologists would struggle to detect a single note of Bacharach in this. ht...

I can't say I hear much or anything of Carole King in that 'Burnt Sugar' song. While I've never been a big fan of hers and have never bought any of her albums, I think she has a pleasant if limited singing voice and I like the way she accompanies herself on the piano. My sister used to play her 'Rhy...

Here's another of the songs from the album co-written with Bacharach, 'Photographs Can Lie'. Once again EC's in splendid voice on this.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=31_kTZcX0LI

Elvis sounds in really good voice on all the tracks I've heard from the album.

I believe it's not so much the beautiful melodies rather it's the sophisticated chord structures that draw jazz musicians towards Michel Legrand's compositions and pianist Bill Evans in particular seems to have had a natural affinity with his music.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AvNgM1gIxE0

grooverider wrote:......Here is the title song, cowritten by Alan & Marilyn Bergman, "Walls":

https://youtu.be/cWk5fwhul0c

Of course, the song is in fact 'Don't Lie to Me' and is an obvious dig at the man with the world's most famous comb-over and was written by Streisand herself.

I was talking to my husband about the jazz pianist Bill Evans and what we had of his in our collection when he reminded me about the album he made with Tony Bennett which included Michel Legrand's and Alan and Marilyn Bergman's 'You Must Believe in Spring', a staple of late night jazz radio shows. h...

Hank, it's a shame she only sang part of the song. The great singers have tended to make a meal out of 'What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life' but thankfully Rosemary Clooney sings it with a lot of restraint.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-NZs8Frsa6I

Neil Simon also wrote the (excellent) lyrics for "And Then He Walked Right Through the Door." Like "Seconds," it was originally intended for a proposed film adaptation of PROMISES, PROMISES. Dionne Warwick's long-unreleased recording was finally made available in 2013 on Dionne'...